


fade from the frame

by humanveil



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War (Movie), Soul Stone (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-04 01:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14581500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanveil/pseuds/humanveil
Summary: The only way.





	fade from the frame

**Author's Note:**

> this was going to be part of a bigger thing, but i didn’t like how it was turning out so i scrapped it. and now it’s just this. 
> 
> based around the soul stone theory. enjoy!

To feel himself disappear comes as no surprise. It’s something Stephen has already felt hundreds, thousands, millions of times; something he’s lived through over and over, again and again. Something he knows to be the only suitable outcome, no matter how much pain it causes. How much anguish.

It’s the after that interests him, the part he hadn’t stuck around to live through. The muted state of existence. The in between. As if he’s alive but not.

 _The stone_ , he thinks with a trace of wonder. A morbid fascination. He can feel the sea of souls grow; more people appearing by the second—half of the universe, wiped out by the snap of a madman’s fingers. Horrific and harrowing and quite literally their only hope.

He sees the kid materialise in front of him, lost and broken and looking every bit of the child Stephen knows him to be. Peter looks around, desperate, and it’s no question who he’s searching for. Stephen knows. Has seen just how much Peter relies on Tony, how deeply they care about each other. Had watched, over and over again, as their side lost. As they were forced to watch each other die in the midst of battle. He’s seen Stark’s guilt, the agony, the anger: savage and wild and incandescent. Has seen Peter crumble, breath short as he watches his father figure die.

He reaches out, catches Peter before he can fall, and holds onto him. Keeps an arm wrapped around his shaking form. Stephen has never been one for comfort, but he figures he has to try now.

He’s left Tony Stark alive and alone, the future of the universe weighing on his shoulders. The least he can do, Stephen thinks, is take care of the kid while Stark takes care of them.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/irnstrk) / [tumblr](http://humanveil.tumblr.com/)


End file.
